Greg Grunberg Talks Star Trek XI

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J.J. Abrams's "lucky charm" discusses what he might play in the upcoming Trek film.

By Eric Goldman

Greg Grunberg has been friends with J.J. Abrams since they were in kindergarten together, and Abrams has referred to the likable actor as his lucky charm, casting him as a regular on both Felicity and Alias, as the ill-fated pilot of Oceanic flight 815 on Lost, and in a cameo in Mission: Impossible III. That being the case, it was already pretty safe to assume Grunberg would appear in Abrams upcoming Star Trek film in some capacity, which the actor addressed during a set visit to his new television series Heroes, which IGN took part in this week.

Asked if Abrams has directly spoken to him about playing a part in Star Trek, Grunberg replied, "Yeah, we joked about that," before revealing that Abrams had sarcastically told him, "You're too old!" Remembering his response to Abrams, Grunberg recounted, "I'm like, 'Too old? What does that mean?' And he won't tell me anything else, and I'm like, 'No, come on!'"

However, Grunberg did go on to say that the belief he'd appear in the film was accurate, saying of Abrams, "He's gonna find something for me." Referring to Abrams Star Trek screenwriters Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman, Grunberg added, "We joked about it with Bob and Alex and J.J. We were all out, and I said, 'Look, if you think that I'm gonna sit through 8 hours of makeup for two lines, forget it!' And Bob goes, 'Oh no, you will!' I'm like, "Yeah, well&#Array; I guess I will.'"

When it was suggested to Grunberg that he could play a Klingon, he replied, "Yeah! I wanna be a bad guy. It would be great to have some great role." And while he didn't get specific on names, Grunberg did say that when it comes to interest in the Abrams Star Trek film, "People are coming out of the woodwork. Amazing actors are coming out from everywhere, calling J.J., saying, 'I wanna be in this movie.' So we'll see."